Sweet Sorrow
by Scribbler
Summary: Sonic and Elise and who they really are. Parting is such sweet sorrow, but life is more difficult to reset than a game. [SonElise in the same way the game was. Set during the events of Sonic the Hedgehog, also known as Sonic '06, Next Gen and Sonic 360.]


**Disclaimer:** Sonic and his chums belong to SEGA and several others who are not me. Bugger.

**A/N:** Thank you gift for Orin, who sent me the movie parts of the game when she didn't have to, just because she's nice like that. Also, because she's a spiffy artist whose Sonic/Elise fanart made me entertain them as a couple long before I even _met_ Elise, and because she's had the Day From Hell. Hope this cheers you up, babs.

**Feedback:** Given I've never in my life written SEGA-Sonic fic before, feedback would be _immensely _appreciated. This is an intimidating fandom to branch into, y'know.

**Continuity: **Set during the events of _Sonic the Hedgehog_, the game released in 2006 to mark Sonic's 15th Birthday. I believe the game is also referred to as _Next Gen, Sonic 360_ and _Sonic '06_. If any of those sound familiar, then you know what I'm talking about.

* * *

_**Sweet Sorrow**_

© Scribbler, March 2007.

* * *

'Parting is such sweet sorrow.' -- William Shakespeare; _Romeo and Juliet._

* * *

Before Elise met Sonic, her life had been so _nothing-y_. There were no added extras, no human accessories, no soft-focus future, nothing at all to enhance her. She, on her own, was colourless, dull and earthbound. An endless parade of parties, official engagements and deferring to the judgement of her advisors until she came of age had instilled in her an iron self-control over herself and her feelings (the only things over which she had any real power), but drained her of individuality. Too young to rule alone, too royal to do normal teenage things, too teenage to be young and reckless; she'd become the Amish frock of personalities and even _she _had lost interest in herself.

It was only when she met Sonic that she suddenly wasn't quite in control anymore. Renegade hope managed to escape from its container to play hopscotch on her nerve endings, and she tapped into parts of herself she'd forgotten existed.

The longer she was with him, the more she experienced a hot, nervous haste that made her forget her iron control and yield to impulse. Something hidden peeped out and touched the world, and it both scared and thrilled her far more than the birthday celebration he and Eggman had crashed. She turned eighteen in two days, and would fully take up the crown as an adult, but she suddenly felt younger, and more inexperienced than ever.

She loved being with him. She could even endure the whole kidnapping thing because Eggman's schemes were what had brought Sonic to her. Everything seemed so much brighter and sharper when Sonic was around; colours were richer, possibilities were suddenly much more attainable than previously thought, and nothing could ruin her mood. He created in her a sense that anything was possible, which was almost the same as the nothing she'd become used to. Sonic was _life_, and being with him made her realise just how much of it she'd been missing.

"Sometimes," she admitted, as he sauntered along the embankment and she tottered beside him, "I feel like my whole life has been just a long, long wait for something horrible that never actually happened. Like I've been up to my neck, fighting to stay afloat, year after year, and I could never let myself go for a second because if I did I'd let everyone down and mess up in some huge way. I had to be who I thought people _wanted _instead of who _I _wanted to be."

"If you've got time to feel like that," Sonic started.

"Then you run." Elise smiled. It was temptingly simple.

"You catch on fast." He gave her a thumbs up, which made her smile. Nobody ever gave her a thumbs up. Usually people were too frightened to even meet her eyes.

"But I think … right now, being here …" She glanced down at the clear water. It got murkier the closer you got to the city. "In this place …" Words stuck in her throat, uncomfortable and sharp-edged.

Sonic glanced up at her. "Elise?"

"If only I'd felt for the bottom, maybe I'd have found it. It was there, the ocean bed, just below where I was treading water. It was there all along."

Sonic was watching her as carefully as a cat at a mouse hole. "So who do you want to be?" he asked without preamble.

Elise considered this. "I don't know."

"Well, whoever you decide to be, make sure you're still Elise too, okay?"

_But who's Elise, really?_ she thought. _I thought I knew, but being with you has made me question so much about myself._ However, she nodded to him. She didn't want to spoil the moment with complications. "Sure. I can do that."

* * *

It was the sensation of power that did it; like static electricity just before lightning incinerates the tree you're standing under. Sonic recognised it instantly, and though Elise had only vague, half-formed ideas about Chaos Emeralds, she turned with him to look.

It was the worst mistake they could've made.

She cursed herself for it later. She wasn't sure _what_ she could've done different – thrown herself in front of him, maybe, or something equally sacrificial and noble. She was a princess – no, she was _the _Princess, and though her life had taken a few unexpected turns lately, the one constant she'd always known was that the Princess existed to prevent the suffering of her people.

She hadn't realised until that moment that she regarded the small blue hedgehog as one of her people. She hadn't realised a great many things about him until they turned to look at the glowing gem and he died at her feet.

* * *

The sound was quick. It was unbelievably quick. It was _hedgehog_-quick. Sonic could've tried to fool himself that he'd been distracted, that nothing on the planet was faster than him, but by the time he registered the sound he was preoccupied with his heart being reduced to ashes inside his chest. 

It started as a hiss, like the whole world taking a deep breath. He barely had time to flick his ears back before it turned into … not _noise_, but something more like an invisible hammer that smacked into both ears at once.

The shaft of light that punched through his chest was more surprising than painful. It was a shock he'd been hit at all. It was a shock he'd slowed down enough to _be_ hit.

The light held him up for a few seconds, refusing to let him fall as it burned a perfect hole right through his ribcage, incinerating bone and soft tissue like a hot knife through butter. He smelled roast meat, realised it was _him_, and found himself promising never to eat chilli dogs again as he finally pitched onto his knees. Never again. Not even the ones with extra chilli.

_Elise…_

She was right there beside him, vulnerable as a newborn kitten. Her face was blank, waiting for the new emotion to shift into place. It was as though she couldn't grasp how she was supposed to react, and so wasn't reacting at all. She didn't understand this kind of thing. That's why she was the damsel and he was the hero; it was how the world worked.

Except that the hero wasn't supposed to go and get himself killed, and the damsel wasn't supposed to stare like that, all determined confidence in him overlaid with a wave of naked horror as she realised what was going on.

He'd let her down.

He'd let a lot of people down – including himself.

But most of all … he'd let her down when the evil was close enough to touch her, too.

Elise was a fragile kind of strong, the same way most evil was a strong kind of fragile. Find the weak spot and rest would crumble. It was a formula he'd used countless times before and it always worked. Eggman was a super genius, but he never learned.

Elise, on the other hand, was just an ordinary human who wore ridiculous clothes and believed in the power of Good. She dressed like an aristocrat, right down to the no-good-for-running shoes, and it wasn't until you got to her eyes that you reassessed your assumptions. Elise's eyes were disconcertingly intelligent. You looked into them and several layers of person looked back at you. She was made up of weakness in layers, and though he'd glimpsed the strength buried at her core … showing it involved ripping away those layers and stripping her of who she was.

She'd depended on him, trusted him to be the hero, and he'd let her down. Big time.

He wondered why he felt sorrier for that than for anything else in his life.

The thought carried him bareback into the dark.

_Elise…_

* * *

Elise was aware of a faint sinking noise. It took her a moment to realise it was her own heart; the sound of it on an express-lift, no-stops-allowed, one-way-ticket-to-the-floor. She felt sick and confused and just _watched_ as Sonic fell forward and didn't get up again. All the saliva in her mouth vanished, and her muscles felt like over-washed elastic, but it was the feeling of being punched, so that her body sank in the middle, which was most difficult to cope with.

Snap.

"Sonic? Sonic!" she cried, rushing over and shaking him.

There was no blood. That was a good sign. When they found Father there'd been lot of blood. He'd been lying there so long it'd pooled. The Royal Guards had hustled her away, but she'd seen him, and the two had since become inextricably bound in her mind. Blood equalled death, but there was no blood here, therefore Sonic wasn't … he couldn't be …

His arm flopped back.

The energy blast had seared straight through him, cauterising the wound before it had chance to bleed.

Elise's hands snapped up to her chest, clasped as if in prayer. "Sonic?" she said in a tiny voice, as though he might still jump up, wink and declare this all a game to cheer her up.

She willed him to open his eyes. She willed him to look at her and smirk "Smile!" like all he had to do was say something to make it true. Sonic didn't question himself; he was refreshingly free from self-doubt and the inhibitions that stopped everybody else from running pell-mell down a grassy embankment in kitten heels.

He didn't move.

Someone nearby was laughing. It wasn't a nice kind of laugh. It was more the kind that accompanied monsters in the dark and childhood fears of what lurked under the bed.

Elise's brain had gone on a nice holiday somewhere. It was pleasant and white and she didn't have to process the fact that Sonic, whom she'd known for such a short time, but who had made such an impact on her life … was lying dead in front of her.

Odd, how little details could fill up the whole world, capture and enrapture the mind. His blue spikes weren't actually spikes at all, but a collection of quills bunched together for wind resistance. Up close you could see the hairs on their undersides, tiny and soft like down. Soft, downy fur, like the felt of her favourite toy when she was a little girl. What was its name? A stuffed animal of no particular genus. She'd called it Greta, and carried it around everywhere. She'd clutched it close in the nights after Father died, whispering hot, secret thoughts and biting felt ears until the urge to cry went away.

Elise had loved Greta, eschewing the children of the palace who looked at her like they wondered what she was _for_.Greta never questioned Elise's actions, never broke her confidences. Greta just stared adoringly through cross-stitch eyes.

Until one day Greta fell off the Royal Barge into the canal and was swept into an aqueduct. Elise had felt bereft then, too, as she watched her only friend churned and torn apart in front of her eyes. Except Greta was pink, and Sonic was blue, and oh, she was crying. Tears streamed down her face and it felt bad and good at the same time. Her heart hurt and all she wanted to do was scream in a way the Princess would never, ever do.

"_Elise, don't cry no matter what happens."_

So when she did scream she didn't do it as the Princess, she did it as Elise, who was immature and brainless and weak. Elise, who had naïvely bypassed all that gentle, getting-to-know-you nonsense and gone straight for the falling in love jugular.

"No…"

She heard her father's voice reminding her of her duty and her promise never to give into tears, but she also saw his crumpled body and all … that … blood. She heard the rumble of Momma's iron-carriage as its defective engines lifted it into the air, saw Greta shredded and floating on the water, heard courtiers wonder behind their hands that she was the only one to survive. She felt the tightness of duty constrict her chest, the weight of over ten years' heartache like rocks in her stomach.

Yet it was this newest loss that tipped her over the edge. This fresh needle of pain pierced something inside her like a lancing a boil, and poison surged to the surface to be expelled in her frenzied, heartsick scream. All Elise's tears had been packed tightly away, frozen and out of reach, but this scream melted them with the ferocity of a blast furnace.

"**_NO_**!"

It ripped from her throat, all raw agony and self-recrimination – and, yes, anger. It wasn't _fair. _She'd been so _happy_, and Sonic had been so mesmerising and dynamic and … _Sonic_. He didn't deserve to die like this.

The feelings swelled and burst from inside her, mottling her vision with gold-green flecks. She screamed some more, drowning out her father's words. The backs of her eyes and neck grew cold, as if she was being anaesthetised.

Which was when the world exploded into flames.

* * *

The castle was surrounded by thick, glutinous darkness. It was almost like nighttime, except that at night you couldn't see a second sun sucking up time like a thirsty man at an oasis.

The darkness felt old like the night, though. The night was always old. Terrors could unfold in its shadows, lives and civilisations could come and go, but while the nature of the talons changed, the nature of the night never did. They were at the centre of a nexus of time, a place where past, present and future blurred their boundaries, but you couldn't tell by looking up. The night was still the same.

Elise stared at the sky and wondered if they'd miscalculated the nature of Solaris all along.

"Princess?" It was Eggman.

Instinctively, Elise held Sonic's body closer. She didn't answer, only glared up at that horrible man who'd tried to kidnap her. She knew he'd tried to kill Sonic on numerous occasions, but Sonic had always outwitted him. He should feel glad Sonic was finally dead.

Her challenge hung between them like clothes on a washing line strung between two buildings.

She'd always had a particular notion about heroes and heroism. When she met Sonic those notions seemed confirmed. He didn't use words like 'duty'; it was all just built in at bone level.

Now she realised you could be heroic without running into burning buildings or rescuing people. You could be a hero just by sticking to your convictions.

"Aren't you going to search for the Chaos Emeralds with the others?" Eggman asked.

Elise glanced at the retreating figures. Tails, the little fox whose grief radiated like a boiling pot with its lid jammed tight, turned to look back at her. He paused, but she nodded curtly. It was a very Princessly nod, and it hurt her neck a little, but she didn't show it.

Tails turned back and kept running.

"No." She'd never heard such a definitive no before, especially not from herself. There were no shades of maybe, no possibility of compromise.

She was going to stay with Sonic, like he'd stayed with her even when she was snatched away so many times.

When she'd sat alone in the dark, half-wondering whether the Royal Guard would mount a rescue, in truth it hadn't been their distinctive green uniforms that occupied her mind. Instead, her brain had bounced between thoughts of the blue hedgehog whose exploits were known even in Soleanna, usually disinterested in sensationalism outside its own borders. The way he'd appeared as if from nowhere, come to her rescue when he had no obligation to, treated the robot attack like a game, introduced himself like she ought to _know_ who he was – it should've made her resent his arrogance. Instead, she'd found herself believing unequivocally that Sonic would come for her. He wouldn't let her down.

And he had. He'd come back for her, over and over, no matter that she was irresponsible enough to _need _rescuing so often. And he treated each rescue like it was the first; like she truly _meant _something to him even though they'd known each other only a day – and not a full day, either.

Sonic was easy to care about, but he was even easier to care _for_.

She missed him.

She missed his easy charm and the way he made her feel – like a regular person with a right to hopes and dreams and flaws. She was allowed to be imperfect around him because he didn't care about imperfections. Sonic cared about who people were under their skin, for all that he could be brash and antagonise his friends into bopping him on the head, or chasing him until their legs hurt. You knew Sonic didn't judge you for being who you were. She missed him like she'd miss her right arm if she lost it.

"I think," Eggman said, snapping her from her reverie, "under the circumstances, crying might not be advisable."

Elise blinked back her tears. Ten years of not crying at all, and now she couldn't seem to stop herself. Where had her iron self-control gone?

Eggman raised his hands palm outwards. "You have to admit, Princess, there's a certain degree of irony to it."

"She said back off."

Elise turned awkwardly, still not letting go of Sonic.

The white hedgehog stood a little distance off. Despite his huge boots he moved quietly. She hadn't even noticed him until he spoke.

Evidently neither had Eggman, who blustered into his moustache. "Are all hedgehogs this irritating on purpose?"

"It'd be difficult by accident." The hedgehog moved towards Elise, interposing himself between her and Eggman. "Don't you have a rock to crawl under?"

"Don't you have Chaos Emeralds to find?"

The hedgehog didn't say anything, but glowered the way only hedgehogs could. He flicked his head in a 'get lost' gesture.

Elise's breath caught in her throat. The spines and colour were all wrong, but for a second he'd resembled Sonic so much that if she hadn't been holding onto him, she might've thought he'd come back to life without the aid of the Chaos Emeralds.

Then the white hedgehog opened his mouth and his voice reminded her of reality.

"I can fly to find them. It's faster than walking. Can you?"

Eggman harrumphed and walked off, presumably to do something about getting them out of there. He had as big a stake in this as everyone else, otherwise he might've tried to stop them resurrecting Sonic. Elise heard him mutter, but it was muffled and she only made out the words 'hedgehogs', 'species' and 'irritating'.

The white hedgehog turned to her. "You okay, Princess?"

Princess. Not Elise.

Not Sonic. Not Sonic at all.

"I'm fine, but he's right. Galling as it is to say it," she hastily added at his shocked expression. "We need the Chaos Emeralds. He needs them…" She stroked Sonic's face. He was already growing cold, but whenever doubt began creeping in she reminded herself of that _presence _she'd felt on the wind. It wasn't too late yet. It _couldn't _be.

Like a fool, she was still hoping that they might find the answer – and find it in time, which was more important. It was possible. Things like that – miracles, that's what the white hedgehog had said – happened sometimes. She'd been involved in a few. Maybe it would happen for them now and they'd be saved. Maybe she could reflect the confidence everyone had in her and use the Emeralds to restore Sonic to life. They could draw back fro the edge of the abyss, laughing because they hadn't needed to be there at all.

"I'm not fast or strong like everyone else. I'd just slow them down, but you -" She nodded, trying to encapsulate all she wanted to say in the tiny movement. "You can fly, and freeze things, and … they probably need you more than I do."

He stuck out his lower lip. It was so childish that Elise almost laughed - _laughed_. "I was already on my way, but I saw that guy bothering you and … well … you looked like you needed a hand."

Seventeen years of manners won out. "Thank you."

"Right. You're welcome." He half-turned, but seemed reluctant to leave.

Elise watched him scan the immediate area for Eggman and grasped that he want to _protect_ her. It seemed familiar somehow, like when Sonic first picked her up and she knew how to fit into hedgehog arms, though she couldn't put her finger on why. Neither could she explain why she trusted the white hedgehog when he'd come into her life with the express wish of murdering Sonic.

"I'll be all right," she said with more confidence than she felt. "Go."

Still he hesitated. He looked at her, running his cat-like gold eyes over the way she held onto Sonic, and said softly, "It's good to keep those you care about close. Sonic was lucky when he met you."

Elise flushed and turned her face away. "No he wasn't. If he hadn't met me, he'd still be alive right now. None of this would've happened." She startled as her hand was grabbed, instinctively trying to pull back and return it to Sonic's forehead. "What-?"

"I'm sorry." The white hedgehog's face was grim.

"For what?"

"I tried to kill him. It's what I went back in time for."

"You didn't know. Mephiles -"

"Played me for a fool, but I'm the one who fell for it. I should've made sure of my facts. I should've known he couldn't be trusted. I'm so naïve…" His voice broke on the last word.

Elise stared at him. He said nothing more, his gaze fixed on far off distances she couldn't follow. All around their little island of stone the darkness pulsed, and from nowhere she suddenly remembered sitting on her nursemaid's knee when she was eight years old. It'd been her first birthday since her father died, and though the court laid on a celebration worthy of a Princess, she spent the day miserable and eventually retired early to her chambers. At bedtime her nursemaid came to dress her for sleep and caught Elise struggling not to cry in the middle of her vast double bed.

"I miss them, Nedda. I miss them so much I think I'm going to be sick…"

"Hush, child. Come here, onto my lap."

The warm arms had been some comfort, but only a small one. Elise recalled how she'd longed for Greta to hug, or that she hadn't promised her father she wouldn't cry. Despite all her possessions, the courtiers and the castle she lived in, that promise felt like her only connection to him and she couldn't give it up.

"Why did they have to die?"

"That's a question nobody can answer, little one."

"It's not fair."

"No, it's not." The nursemaid had continued to make noises like one might make to an overwrought cow, or a skittish colt.

"I'll never be happy again," Elise sniffled.

"You shouldn't say such things, child."

"Why not? It's true. I'll never be happy; never ever. All the time I feel horrid inside, and people said it would get better with time, but it _hasn't_. I'm going to feel this way _forever_."

At that the nurse had pulled Elise upright and said, "How do you know that? Can you see into the future?"

"No, but -"

"But nothing. Princess, the future is not yet written. Trust me, you _will_ hurt, and nobody can tell you how long it will last, but I can promise you that you will feel happiness again someday."

Elise had blinked at her. "How can you promise that when the future is not yet written?"

And the nurse had looked straight into Elise's eyes the way nobody was supposed to for royalty, and said, "Because happiness is not having what you want, it is wanting what you have."

Elise hadn't understood at the time, and had eventually forgotten the exchange. Nedda herself died six months later of congestive heart failure, but now it was as if she sat right beside Elise, hr knobbly hands also on Sonic's head. Her words rang clear in Elise's mind like a church bell's knell through an empty city.

Happiness couldn't be pursued. It had to be found. It had to be _recognised_. It was a condition free from doubt, always unselfconscious and its arrival as noticeable as the first shadow you cast in the morning. Happiness – true happiness – was complete contentment.

Elise remembered the feel of scree and muddy grass clods sticking to her feet as she ran, ungainly as a foal taking its first steps. She remembered a gloved hand holding hers and dragging her along. She remembered the wind rushing past her ears as she toppled backwards into empty air. She remembered staring at a blossoming tree and letting her guard down so much she very nearly cried with _joy_…

She remembered it all in a split second. Revelations don't take long.

"What's your name?"

"Huh?" The white hedgehog snapped from his own thoughts and blinked at her.

"I didn't catch it before," Elise pressed.

"My name?" He scrubbed at the back of his neck with his free hand. "Uh, Silver. My name's Silver."

She nodded. "Then I'm very pleased to have met you, Silver."

He blinked bemusedly at her for another few seconds. Then he seemed to realise he was still holding her hand and dropped it, scrambling to his feet. "Sorry, I'd better go search … I'd better go."

Elise nodded again. She watched him run at the balcony and dive off, and then soar into the thick air like the white bird on the Soleanna Royal Crest. His spines looked a little like wings, increasingly more so as he shrank into the distance.

She laid her hand on Sonic's face and smoothed his cheek.

"_Happiness is not having what you want; it is wanting what you have."_

She knew people would think her strange. She couldn't explain it; a hedgehog and a human? It wasn't natural. It was abnormal – perverted, even. They weren't even the same species; for all that they walked alike, talked alike and thought alike. She couldn't _understand _the attraction, just as she hadn't been able to understand Nedda's advice, nor the reason her father extracted that promise from her – but she couldn't deny it either. Her feelings for Sonic were too strange.

Yet she'd spent the last ten years of her life with her body playing host to a parasitic, destructive god, and in the last twenty-four hours she'd met time-travellers, telekinetics, been kidnapped, locked away, broken out, recaptured, dived off cliffs and out of burning airships, and seen machines even the mechanics of Soleanna would marvel at. Strange was relative.

And happiness was fleeting.

She was going to fight back. For once in her life she'd started taking an active role in her own fate, and though Mephiles had robbed her of that freedom, she wouldn't rest until she regained her independence, her happiness, and the happiness of those who were working so hard to bring the Chaos Emeralds to her. She was stronger than she'd been.

"_I'll go too, because it's for Sonic. So Elise… watch over him."_

"I'll watch over you," she bent her head to whisper into his ear, "just like you were watching over me. I'm here for you the way you were there for me. And I won't give up, I promise. I won't lose you or anyone else to this creature. Not this time."

The breeze shouldn't have existed in that world of bubbling darkness, but Elise tipped her face into it and wondered if she really had imagined the feel of another hand over hers.

* * *

_Elise._

Elise. Yes, that was her name.

_Just smile._

A cataclysm of forgotten smiles. First steps. First birthday. Warm duvet. Hot tea. Joyful greeting. Hello! Hello, old friends! New clothes. So pretty. Taffeta. Silk. Feathers. Yellow. White. Mastering the steps to a dance. Racing ahead of the others, winning and laughing and slow pokes, can't keep up with me. Faster and faster. Lift your pinkie as you sip, dear. Good morning, Mother. Did you have a nice trip? A full dance card. A beautiful view from the balcony. But … nobody to share it with.

Loss. Pain. Seconds, minutes, hours. Hurthurthurt! Days, weeks, months. Achelossgrief! Years, decades, centuries. Griefhurttears. Tears. Important. Cry. Mustn't! Mustn't cry! An eternity of pain, but you must keep it inside, Elise. You must never let it out. You must be a good girl, a strong ruler. You must be a true Princess.

Princess…

_Elise_.

A wash of memories. Princess Elise of Soleanna. Such a shame she outlasted both her parents, and so _young_. You have to feel sorry for her. Ha! Are you serious? Why, when she has all that money and prestige? I mean, have you _seen _the Royal Barge? My whole street would fit on it and then some! Trust me, people that rich only know the pain of an imperfect money pile. Well I think you're being too hard on her. She seems nice; kind of sweet, from what I've seen. Sweet? Then why hasn't there been a royal proclamation about _exactly _what happened to her father and his scientists? They're keeping something from us ordinary folk, you mark my words, and I'd bet my life that _she's_ in on it.

Loneliness. Heartache. Laying her head on a warm but bony knee.

_You must be strong, Elise._

Strong. Yes. That was her purpose.

_Who knew such a tiny flame could bring such devastation?_

The Flames of Disaster. Got to stop them. Visions, flames surging down the streets, burning … burning … all those people are _burning_. Burningscreamingdying. Menwomenchildren. Stopstopstop! Not real! Not real! Go to keep them in. The Princess must be strong for her people. It's her duty to protect them, not just to be a meaningless figurehead.

Papa? What're you doing? Why can't I come with you to your lab? Momma? Nedda? S... So... Son... (reachreachmustreachcan'treachnamenamename) ... S-So-Solaris. Iblis. Don't kill him! Kill who? All gone. Pink and blue and red; white and black and orange and … silver. Never met. A stolen kiss. Sorrysorrysorry. My fault. All my fault. If you hadn't met me you'd still be alive. But you are – you are alive, and so am I, and we can be alive and happy together. Right?

Never met. Blew out the flame and then … reset. Redo. Rebuild.

But memory says ... what? Got to protect … must protect …

Fading.

Fading…

_Elise_.

Protect Elise?

_Just smile_.

Hugging Greta. She remembered Greta. Smelled like Momma and Papa, before Momma's iron-carriage crashed and Papa's experiments went wrong and she saw all the blood. But Greta fell, just like … can't recall exactly. Hazy. Bright light and then … falling at her feet. Screams. Hers? But that never happened. It will never happen. She's free, but at the same time … trapped.

I don't want to blow it out. I don't care about the rest of the world! I care about me and you and you and me, and I care about … I can't forget. Please don't make me forget. I've been so happy with you. I've chosen who I am! Please don't take that away…

_Happiness is not having what you want; it is wanting what you have._

_Elise._

_Just smile._

Anything was possible, and that was almost the same as nothing. It was almost the same as being born into a world that had never existed before. Thimbles of water going back into a bucket, melting away like they'd never been and swirling in a mess of endless possibilities until they were scooped out again, fresh and new.

Fresh and new. Yes.

But also old.

_Just smile. _

_Elise._

* * *

Elise flopped backwards onto her bed like cooked spaghetti, legs and arms straggling every which way. She was exhausted. Despite what anyone said about royalty having an easy life, these occasions never failed to tire her out, and she'd just been there in a support capacity. She dreaded to think what toll it would've taken had she been expected to do more than smile, wave and stand by her father's throne while the priests waxed lyrical.

The problem was being on display the whole time. With crowds surrounding her barge on all sides, and an open plan stage, there was nowhere to hide. An entire evening of being the perfect Princess and she was ready for bed, but no, she had to then smile and wave more at the annual charity ball that followed. She hadn't even been permitted to stop smiling as she worked her way through the slew of potential suitors already lined up to fill her dance card.

Without getting up, Elise kicked off her sandals and rubbed her feet together. They ached unbearably from being stepped on, crushed and otherwise mutilated by those same suitors. If she hadn't already been ill at ease with the idea of matchmaking, this would've certainly turned her off adhering to another's choices. She had her own mind, thank you very much, and she could make her own choices. _If _she ever married, Elise resolved to marry someone light on his feet. And interesting. An evening of listening to political diatribe and empty compliments had convinced her of that, too. She needed honesty and a sense of fun, or else what was the point?

She'd dismissed her maids and retired without disrobing in her dressing room. She was simply too tired to deal with people fussing over her hair and make-up. So it was that she curled up on top of her bedclothes and buried her head into her pillows, eyes shut, only to feel a sudden wind gust through bedchamber. It kicked up her hair as she sat bolt upright.

"What-?" It was the same wind from before; the strange wind that had buffeted her on the canal. It was no ordinary wind, she was sure of it, as evidenced by its presence now in her chambers. And yet … Elise found she wasn't afraid. "Is someone there?" she called, voice steady.

No answer.

"Hello?" She swung herself out of bed and went through to the antechamber adjoining her own.

It was a small room with a desk in it, reserved for her studies and redolent of books and ink. She needed to study hard and understand how the world worked if she was going to be head of state one day.

The window was shut, but the air inside fresh and crisp, as though it had recently been open.

Pursing her lips, Elise returned to her bedchamber – and paused in the doorway, mouth open.

Sitting on her dressing table was a small, misshapen soft toy. It was pink, made of felt, and had two cross-stitch eyes; the type of toy one might give to a baby to cuddle. Elise picked it up without a second thought and turned it over. "… Greta?"

But … she'd seen Greta fall off the barge and be swept into an aqueduct years ago. She'd been devastated at the time, until her father told her all about the afterlife, and how Momma was taking care of Greta now. His bass rumble always made her feel better, even when he used it to tell her unpleasant truths.

Elise held the soft toy to her chest and rushed back to the window. She wrenched it open so hard she nearly wrenched her shoulder as well, and stuck her head out into the night.

Yet if she expected to see someone out there she was disappointed. The drop to the waterways and ground below was sheer, as was the wall above. There was no way anyone could've used this as an entrance or exit without her seeing.

She should've cried out. She should've immediately called the guards to tell them an intruder had been in her chambers. Yet she didn't. Instead, she stayed where she was, watching the fireworks that still erupted periodically in the distance.

Civilian parties would go on until dawn. If she listened hard she could hear the music from the further districts, and see the giant bonfires reflected in the canals. She wasn't a fan of fire, though she couldn't explain why. It unnerved her. Yet now she stared at the flickering flames, a strange emotion suffusing her insides like syrup oozing between the rigid cogs and gears of a machine.

Princess Elise hugged the little soft toy and felt … happy.

* * *

"So why did you want to come to Soleanna anyway?" Tails asked, kicking his feet against the side of the turret. His arms hurt from hoisting Sonic mid-jump, but he didn't care. He'd done it a thousand times before when they were battling Eggman.

The evening had been great, full of exotic food and even more exotic machines for him to peruse. Soleanna mechanics were a cut above Station Square's, and they didn't mind when a curious fox bombarded them with questions about their work. One or two had even been pleased at his obvious admiration, and given him tips on how to improve the X-Tornado.

Sonic shrugged. "I just did. Why, don't you like it here?"

"It's great! This Sun Celebration is so cool. You know they have little fried sugary dough-balls on sticks? They call them Dinkelfratt. _Dinkelfratt_."

"Dinkelfratt?" Sonic wrinkled his nose. "I'd rather have a chilidog."

"They had stalls for those, too; and baked potatoes, and all kinds of other stuff I can't remember the names of. I was just curious why you wanted to come, is all. You know Soleanna is the City of Water, right? But Amy said it's also known as the City of Love. She thought you were coming here so you could propose to her."

At once Sonic's expression drained of amusement. "Don't even joke about stuff like that!"

Tails hadn't been joking, but he put it to one side in favour of peering down the side of the tower on which they were perched. "And this errand you had to run at the castle. Why did you need to do that? And why in secret?"

"What is this, a police interrogation? I just had to do something important."

"But what? It's not like you to break in somewhere unless you're chasing a bad guy."

"I had something to deliver. Don't ask me what or why, because I'm not sure what it was for, either. I just knew it was important, and that it had to be delivered today."

Tails was confused. This year's Sun Celebration came two days before the birthday of Soleanna's Princess. The two events had been merged into one giant super-duper party, but until now Sonic had never shown any interest in visiting this kingdom, nor in its monarchy. "And the secrecy?"

Sonic flashed his trademark grin. "I already got one 'princess' who won't leave me alone. No way do I need another."

Tails smiled. It was difficult not to. Sonic inspired good feeling in people because he made them feel like they really _mattered_, and if Tails didn't always understand his oldest friend's motivations … well, it was a small price to pay. Sonic was special. There'd never be another quite like him.

Another firework lit up the sky, casting their faces in odd shadows.

"Great view from up here, huh?" said Sonic, turning away so that Tails couldn't see his expression anymore.

"Uh-huh," Tails agreed.

"And you know what the best part is?"

"What?"

"Amy would _never_ think to look for me here."

Tails laughed and shook his head. At least there were _some _things in which Sonic was predictable.

It was nice to know you could count on certain constants in the world.

* * *

_**Fin. **_

* * *

'Oh, sweet sorrow, the time you borrow, will you be here when I wake up tomorrow?' – Katherine Wolf; _In Loneliness_.

**

* * *

**

**A/N: **The 'happiness' line actually finds it origins in an article by Joyce Grenfell, an English comedienne and all-around terrific woman. The world lost a great mind and a lot of wisdom when she died, so here's to Joyce.


End file.
